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The mysterious assailants both wore similar black clothing with a multitude of straps and zippers on them. The man held out his hand and a large rifle-like weapon appeared. The Manifest was sleek, bright gold, and had intricate designs all along the barrel shining in the moonlight. He smiled and greeted them with his fairly raspy voice.
“How’s it going? Lovely weather we’re having here huh?” The man said with a smirk.
The trio quickly got in front of Mierle as Sarah summoned forth her Manifest, preparing to fight these seemingly dangerous foes.
“Aww, looks like they don’t want to talk to us, Don. How sad.” The female added with a playful frown on her face.
“That’s okay, Kat. Not everyone can be as much of a chatterbox as you are.”
After letting out a hearty laugh, Don's mouth curled intensely as he grinned. Kat rolled her eyes before fixing her gaze onto the box that Mierle was holding.
“I think you know why we’re here.” She said, stepping forward with a devious smirk on her face.
With no hesitation, Sarah fired a flurry of wind arrows at Kat, hoping to catch her off guard. The dust settled and Kat was standing there with her hand extended, completely unscathed as though she blocked the attack with an invisible shield.
“Is that all you can do? As a fellow wind affinity Vesta, I commend you for trying. But frankly, that was absolutely pathetic.” Kat remarked with a light chuckle, not impressed at all by Sarah’s skills or lack thereof.
Kat held out both hands in front of her, assuming a position as though ready to catch something falling. The air in the area suddenly got extremely gusty and tense as a large object formed in her palms. Kat’s Manifest was a large, dark blue hammer with golden trim accents. The handle was long and seemed to be wrapped in a tight black leather.
Her Manifest looked incredibly heavy, but somehow, Kat spun it around and slung it on her shoulder as though it weighed no more than a toothpick. Sarah started to feel nervous as she had never witnessed such strong wind based Core Energy from a single person, the power screamed at her to run away. Carmen could also feel their strength and as she wondered who they were, she braced herself for the worst.
When she realized that these people were out of their league, Sarah slowly backed away while Kat began to swing the hammer at the group. The single swipe sent a massive wind current towards them, rippling through the trees and knocking everyone off their feet. The group landed on their backs, sustaining substantial damage from the gusty blow. Carmen saw that Mierle had been knocked over and the box she held was tipped on its side.
Carmen dashed over to help Mierle up as Sarah got to her feet, providing cover fire. The multiple wind arrows lit up the sky with a teal glow and rained down on the two adversaries. Unfortunately, they had very little effect once they made impact, doing nothing more than annoying them.
“Stop shooting those little pebbles at us! So irritating!” Don said with an annoyed growl.
With a quick step, he sprinted towards Sarah. Don aimed his gun at her and fired off a few golden colored bullets, blasting away in quick succession. Sarah leapt out of the way, but the bullets curiously changed course and followed her, hitting Sarah directly in the ankle.
'What!?! How did that still hit me??'
She looked down with pained confusion, unable to stand back up as she noticed her now bleeding foot.
Carmen tried to assist as she pointed her palm towards Don, attempting to gravity manipulate him. He easily sidestepped the slow attack and countered with a barrage of his own, firing the rifle directly at Carmen. Just before the bullets hit their target, Sarah intercepted them with her arrows in the knick of time. Despite her painful injury, she still had enough resolve to continue the fight.
Rivell quickly sprinted over to Sarah and healed her ankle after summoning forth his Manifest, allowing her to fight Don again. She thanked Rivell and fully focused her attention towards the red haired assailant, glaring at him with great irritation.
“Aww, how cute! If you think you’re about to intimidate me, you’ve got another thing coming, kid” Don playfully expressed, finding Sarah to be incredibly harmless in this fight. She rapidly fired off a multitude of arrows, not holding back an ounce of her strength.
In response, Don slung his Manifest around in all directions, effortlessly shooting down every arrow sent his way. The bullets bent and traced across the sky, hitting their targets with great precision. His aim was impeccable and the masterful use of his Manifest showed the clear difference in both experience and skill level. Sarah was nearly out of breath at this point, unable to match his shooting speed. She wondered what she could do to defeat this seemingly impossible foe.
While Sarah was busy with Don, Kat approached Carmen with a cheeky smile. Carmen crouched in front of Mierle and glared, trying her best to come up with a plan.
“If you could just give us the item in that box, we promise to make your deaths painless. Sounds like a good deal right?”
Kat swung her hammer again, forcefully sending Carmen and Mierle flying backwards from the powerful wind gust.
Carmen slowly got to her feet and cautiously aimed her palms at the hammer wielding opponent, doing anything she could to defend Mierle. She fully exerted her Core Energy outward and applied a large amount of gravitational force onto Kat, more than she had ever exerted before. However, Kat seemed relatively unaffected by it, the force only slightly slowing her approach.
“But how?!” Carmen questioned with great surprise, wondering why her ability was so weak against this woman.
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“Sorry kid, I’m an Upper Amethyst Class Vesta. Your unawakened skills are a joke to someone like me. There’s levels to this and I’ll be the first to show you the difference.”
Kat jeered with a crazed smile, winding up her hammer and collecting a significant amount of wind currents around it. Carmen slowly backed away with a fearful expression, now feeling scared of what was coming next.
In the next instant, Kat darted forward with her massive hammer, swinging it with great force. The hammer pounded Carmen in the chest, completely knocking all the air out of her body as she got sent careening through the upper tree line.
Just as she reached the peak of her upward trajectory, Kat pointed her hand at Carmen and blasted her back down with a powerful wind current. Carmen brutally crashed into the ground near the seemingly unconscious old lady, bouncing off the floor and rolling to a stop beside her.
Kat walked over and lifted Carmen up by her hair, tossing her into the air again. Then with one mighty swing, Kat forcefully smacked Carmen with the hammer as though she were hitting a ball. At that moment, Carmen felt her arm snap in two, breaking cleanly at the elbow. The blow sent her into a nearby tree, causing it to crumble and explode from the impact. Carmen landed onto the cold terrain and laid there, heavily bruised and battered, barely able to move. She gripped her broken arm and grimaced, feeling the pain radiate through her body.
Carmen, now severely weakened from the assault, noticed a curious glint of light catching her eye. She looked over and saw a silver key with a human heart shape at the end of it. The key had carelessly fallen out of the wooden box that Mierle was carrying around, exposing itself for all to see and admire. Carmen slowly crawled over, dragging her mangled arm along before putting the key back inside the box.
She gripped the box tightly to her chest with her free arm so this woman wouldn’t get a hold of it. Kat made her way over to Carmen as she struggled to crawl away, easily catching up to her injured prey.
Just as Kat’s shadow draped over her, Carmen felt a jolt in her chest. This feeling was unlike anything she had ever experienced before. The jolt felt incredibly cold and hollow, similar to the feelings she had during her nightmares. It happened again and again, enough to take her breath away. Kat stood over Carmen menacingly, slinging the overly large Manifest onto her shoulder.
“Is that the key you have there? Be a dear and hand it over. I’m getting bored of this.” Kat said while reaching out to grab the box from Carmen’s clutches.
Once her hand touched the box, the key inside began glowing incredibly bright. Suddenly, a massive burst of void based energy exploded from Carmen, sending everyone in the immediate area flying backwards. All fights stopped as everyone turned their attention to Carmen.
With her eyes closed, Carmen’s unconscious body began to levitate in the air. The wooden box floated upwards and her brown hair lifted, as though suspended in zero gravity. The silver key emerged from the box and shined brightly as it slowly rose above her, lighting up the sky briefly before dissipating.
As the key ended its extravagant display, a dark purple aura enveloped Carmen, gleaming in the moonlight. Her eyes shot open, revealing all white, glowing sockets with no pupils. Carmen’s head slowly moved forward and a blackish purple, crystal-like rift appeared in front of her.
With an elegant and graceful hand motion, she put her hand into the rift and ripped out a black and silver rapier. The energy emitting from her was hauntingly immense and filled the area with cold air. Sarah felt chills down her spine as she was in awe of Carmen’s awakening, caught off guard by how excessive and grand it was.
Carmen gently floated down to the ground and stood there, not saying a single word. Her face was completely shrouded in darkness as she stared down at the grassy terrain below.
“Carmen… Y-You alright?” Rivell asked in a terrified manner, stumbling over his words like a scared child.
No response came from her as she slowly lifted her head, glaring back at the two assailants with cold, colorless eyes. Don and Kat fixed their gazes toward her, weapons ready and not knowing what to expect.
Carmen gracefully raised the hand holding her rapier, pointing it at them. Then with a few elegant flicks of the wrist she traced a symbol in the air, as though painting on an invisible canvas. The black, ink-like runic symbol lit up and suddenly the sky turned purple and black.
In a near instant, everything within the area was completely flattened by an extraordinary amount of gravitational force. Her friends dropped to the ground, getting crushed by this sudden pressure. Rivell, Sarah, and Mierle couldn’t move a muscle under the incredible weight.
“Carmen!! Stop!! It’s too much!!” Sarah yelled out, feeling her strength escape as she slipped in and out of consciousness.
Rivell grimaced from the pain, unable to get a single word out from the terrifying assault. Carmen didn’t listen to their pleas for help and instead started walking towards her foes. Even though there was a ridiculous amount of gravity around, they were somehow still standing, only being slowed by the attack.
“Just who is this brat? I’ve never felt energy like this from a newly awakened kid.” Kat said with a look of great concern.
“I don’t know, but we have to finish her quickly and get the key. This'll surely bring too much attention if we stay here any longer.” Don responded, taking aim with his Manifest.
“Alright girl, this game is over. We’ve had fun, but we really must be going!”
Don bolted towards Carmen while firing off multiple blasts of his light bending bullets. She easily evaded the shifty attacks and despite her clearly unconscious state, Carmen’s movements were just as graceful and refined as always. She quickened her approach and slashed at Don with her Manifest.
The rapier connected, cutting his shirt and knocking him into the ground with great force. The terrain crumbled from the collision and collapsed in on itself, falling victim to the unnatural amount of gravity still being applied. Kat’s eyes went wide as she witnessed the destruction from that one attack, shocked it was even possible from someone so young. Even though Carmen was fighting them one handed, she was easily overpowering the two assailants.
Kat snapped out of her brief stupor and jumped into the fray, slamming down her hammer to send out a heavy wind gust. Carmen blocked it with her rapier and masterfully dashed back to create distance. She then quickly pointed her Manifest towards them and fired purple, void energy blasts from the tip of the blade. Don emerged from the rubble and provided cover fire for Kat, intercepting the attack at the last second.
However, once the bolts connected, Carmen hastily closed the gap between them and fought close quarters again. She clashed with Don and tried to force her will onto him, comfortably overpowering his strength. However, as her attention was focused on Don, Kat swung her hammer into Carmen.
Unable to react in time, she took the brutal hit head on and crashed into a row of trees, shaking the ground in the process. As Carmen got to her feet, Don quickly appeared behind her and chopped the back of her neck with his Manifest. The visceral blow knocked her fully unconscious and Carmen dropped her rapier as she fell face flat onto the ground. The weird black and purple sky faded away and the heavy gravitational force subsided, giving the duo much needed relief.
“Whew, she was something else! That’s all the excitement I need for the night.” Don quipped with a heavy sigh, feeling glad that the battle was over.
Kat chuckled as she grabbed the wooden box off the ground, placing the intricately designed heart-shaped key inside.
“We’ve got what we came here for, let’s go.” Kat added, not wanting to stick around for much longer.
Don didn’t respond to Kat’s request as he stood there silently. He instead emphatically kicked Carmen in the stomach multiple times, doing more damage to her lifeless body. Don then rested his foot on the side of her face, stepping with his full body weight.
“What are you doing?” Kat asked, looking confused by his actions.
“Just venting my frustrations. I’m pissed that she made us work so hard on this stupid job. Plus, she ripped my shirt. What the hell man!”
He angrily took out his Manifest again, pointing the barrel downwards.
“I think it’s best that you sleep forever, little girl.”
Don aimed the rifle at Carmen’s face and just before he pulled the trigger, a red flash happened in front of him. Carmen had disappeared off the ground, causing Don to look around confused and surprised.
A short distance in front of the duo knelt a person with their back turned to them. The individual sat down Carmen and looked at her for a brief moment, scanning her battered body thoroughly. The person was wearing scarlet-colored robes and had their hood up, not revealing their face.
The scene grew incredibly silent as Kat and Don wondered who interfered with their affairs.